Case Mod - Complete Project: Military Tech - A fundraising project in support of veterans

Update 12/28/16



Good afternoon DDCM fans!

Got a bit of an update for everyone!

I was able to sneak in a little work this holiday season and have a couple pictures to share. I cut out the opening for the front panel intake and made a mount for the 2 fans. I also test fit the vandal switch in place.






I also posted DDCM’s first Youtube video! I figured unboxing EVGA’s PSU was a perfect opportunity to showcase my….. workspace? Haha, hope you get a kick out of the video and I’d love to hear any comments or suggestions.
YouTube Link:
https://youtu.be/izInVwBUzrk

Slightly off topic, #OperationChristmasSurprise went off beautifully and I crafted this plaque for my wife.


As always guys, thanks for sticking with me. Until next time….
Happy Modding!

 

Update 1/2/17



Good evening DDCM fans!

I hope everyone’s holiday went fantastic and safely made it through with some sense of sanity. 

To celebrate the new beginning of the new year, I figured I’d make the video giving a shout out to sponsor that helped the beginning of Project Military Tech, which is ModMyMods.com. Enjoy the video and if you’ve enjoyed the project before or got a chuckle from my newbie YouTube skills, please leave a comment or a like. I really appreciate everyone’s support up to this point. Hopefully more build log specific videos will come in the near future.

As always…. Modders Unite!

https://youtu.be/PIet1nORFZU

 

Update 1/23/17



Good afternoon DDCM fans!

Just giving a update on how progress is moving….. slow…. But moving.

Got the front panel fabrication complete. Also prepped and ready for paint.... would have painted pictures if my spray can didn't clog 3 seconds into spraying. Took it back to Walmart and now waiting for them to get more in stock.








So we started prepping to begin sleeving station to hack through them all. We have our new pattern and it’s going to look awesome. It’s very non-traditional yet I think it’ll tie everything together well.





Only a few wires in the ATX pin extractor broke. I'm not mad though since it lasted through several sleeving jobs. When I broke I pulled out my trusty staples to continue. Before I started making my thumbs bleed on the staples I shot ModMyMods.com an e-mail asking if they had a tool they could send to help keep the process going. And like the awesome sponsors they have been so far, they already shipped one out to me this morning. Big thanks to them for helping progress keep moving forward. Until it arrives, I will do a little more using the trusty staple method. Also, I took the time to cut all the paracord for the 24 pin to the correct lengths.





Thanks again for tuning in and if you find us on social media…. Updates are a little more frequent. Until next time Happy Modding!!

 

Update 01/30/17



Good morning DDCM fans!

I hope everyone had a great weekend! I was able to do a little work on Project Military Tech in the early hours of the morning before everyone woke up.
So a bit of sleeving progress, I was able to finish the 24 pin and will be working to finish the other cables shortly. Thankfully work going forward will be easier with the Billy Brown’s World Renowned Universal Dual end ATX pin removal tool! I am super excited as this tool is much more durable and the quality of the pins are even more so than my last tool. Thank you again to my sponsor ModMyMods.com for the quick response and getting this in the mail to me so quickly.








Additionally, I test fit the case handles and checked the bolt clearances. I need to use a bit shorter bolts, hopefully I remember to ask for some when Home Depot gives me the paint on Wednesday.







Once that was complete, I reassembled the case and made sure everything was lining up properly so I can finish my final cuts, paint and start mounting things. I can’t wait to start painting and the vision starts to take shape.






1/30/17 - HELP!

A call to all my supporters! HELP, I need your input!

First, we have the before and after of the motherboard and the painting of the heatsinks. Is this a good use of the green to tie it in? Open to other ideas.





Secondly, I have these two hot wheels vehicles. I want to incorporate them into the build, but I'm not sure how. Any suggestions are welcome!

 

Update 2/6/17



Good morning DDCM fans!

I hope everyone had a great SuperBowl weekend! I personally didn't watch the game as I'm not a fan of football unless I'm out on a field playing myself. But I digress, let's talk PMT progress!

First, I got to cutting out the side windows, for which I made a template to mark them. The cutting actually went better than planned. I was worried about the thin strips of metal between the vehicles. Then it was prep and primer.

















Second, we turned our attention to the drive bay door. Used a DIY material warmer (or my electric heater) to give the copolyester a slight curve to mesh with the front panel cover. The small bent strip was a test of the company's claim that you can cold bend the material without it breaking or splintering. And to my surprise.... it bent easily and with no flaws. Now I just need to create a new brake.







But that's it for now, I wish I had more to update but I was caught up with a daddy daughter dance and setting up my new/temporary setup. Keep tuned over the next week for some possible updates on sponsors, fingers crossed they come through!

 

Update 2/7/17





Good afternoon DDCM fans!




It’s that’ time again! We can now announce that Thermaltake has partnered with DDCM for Project Military Tech!! How awesome is this!! The team at Thermaltake has agreed to send the following RGB awesomeness to fill in some of the gaps of missing pieces.



First we have my original request…. The new TT Ring Pro 12 fans! I initially asked for 3 of the fans to handle the 2 front intake and 1 back exhaust. But after deciding the water cooling route and the capability to do a push/pull, they bumped the quantity up to 6! The extra fan is to be added to DDCM’s part pool for a later project. Who knows maybe these fans will make another appearance in the DDCM desk project.



Secondly we have the cooling solution! The TT Water 3.0 240mm Non-RGB version, because the fans don’t matter now that we have those TT Ring Pro 12. So we are going to take the individually controlled RGB LED fans and slap them all over that radiator. The fans included with the system will be added to the part pool as well. I can’t wait to see this water cooling system lit up with green and white LED patterns……. Is anyone getting as excited as I am?!?!?!



Next, we have the Poseidon Z RGB Keyboard w/ blue switches. Because, when you have such a pretty tower…. You have to have just as awesomely lit peripherals. I can’t wait to get my hands on this as I’ve never had the chance to own a mechanical keyboard myself. I see a product demo/review video in the near future.



To pair with the Poseidon keyboard, we also have a Ventus Z RGB Gaming Mouse. Why have just one peripheral lit up RGB style when you can have them all right?



Finally, to finish off the Thermaltake bundle of goodness is the Cronos RGB Gaming Headset. When you have all the gaming power and potential that is Project Military Tech, you are going to need some quality audio gear as well. I think these are going to pair nicely with Gigabyte’s Creative Sound Core3D Quadcore processor. I’m going to be sad to see this leave the workshop… but I think I might enjoy testing it.



Well that’s it for now everyone! I hope you have all enjoyed following the progress this far. Our next steps for sponsors is to fill the empty gaps of the CPU, GPU and HHD/SSD.

 

Update 2/16/2017



Good afternoon DDCM fans!

First off, I would like to ask the question of what you prefer. Right now I have been saving updates and doing a write up with a bulk update with a lot of pictures. Is this what you prefer? Or would you rather see more frequent updates with just a couple pictures each time? As my updates are becoming picture heavy, I’m aware this might cause some issues for some. But, will continue if no one identifies a want to move to another option.

Now that’s out of the way, lets continue with PMT!

Let’s start out first with our sponsor hardware goodness from Thermaltake! They were gracious to send not only fans and a cooler, but peripherals as well! The peripherals will really generate some extra audience at the raffle locations!


Digging into the box of goodies, we first pull out the Ventus Z RGB mouse. A real thing of beauty, with sharp lines and great contrast. Design plan for it includes painting it green, excluding the buttons.



Moving onto the keyboard, Thermaltake sent us a Poseidon Z RGB. This thing is a beast! It has quite a bit of weight. In my YouTube unboxing video, I mentioned it weighed about the same as a brick… We are going to adjust the design to fit PMT by painting the keyboard body green while leaving the caps black. Over on social media I played with some of the RGB control modes, and I have to say my wife was actually impressed….. and she is a non-techie that gets bored with anything gaming/modding specific.



Finally, on the peripheral list is the Chronos RGB headset. I pulled it out of the box and test fit it to my head. When I asked if I would get weird looks at work if I used this…. She just laughed. But it does have some powerful output. When I plugged it in it took over the audio from my speakers but my wife could still hear the movie from across the room. Design plan for this is to paint all of the non-shiny pieces green. If I had the skills I would replace the red fabric with camo or green.



Moving from the peripherals and onto the rest of Thermaltake’s package, we turn our attention to the TT Water 3.0 CPU cooler. Like most AiOs the loop is very well secured, and this one is very well crafted. Nice clean lines, maximum space on the radiator, quality materials of the tubing. I’m sure the pump will perform splendidly as well, but I haven’t had a chance to push power to it. That functionality test will come with all the fans mounted and in place. I couldn’t resist and mounted the first two fans on the radiator already.



Speaking of the fans, can we say rugged durable construction. The diffuser over the LEDs really allows different colors to separate nicely. Here’s some RGB shots of playing around with possible settings for PMT.





We have also partnered with ArtMods(@artmods_ on twitter) and he is providing the vinyl cutout of the front panel design with the soldier memorial. As a veteran of the military himself, he was more than happy to help out any way he can.


Continuing onto some fabrication, we’ve gotten a lot more done and are preparing to get the bulk of the painting done. But first, we had a slight mishap with some heat and the front panel. It warped just enough that I can’t fix it. The positive side to that is that we get to remake a cleaner front panel and not restricted by the shape of the original panel. Also for this update we have the final shots of the side panels painted and the internal shroud created. Next steps are to finalize the motherboard tray cut outs and paint everything this weekend. Assembly of the case hopefully completed on Sunday(Feb. 16, 2017).

Front panel damage:


Front panel resolution:



Internal shroud:







Motherboard tray cuts:



Final disassembly before painting


Painting:

 

Update 03/06/17



Good afternoon DDCM fans!

I apologize for the lack of updates, but I do have a lengthy one for you today! Bear with me and the massive picture overload. I’m going to start the post with a peek into the current state of the build. Oooo…. Pretty lights….




First, we finished painting the panels green, then assembled the case as is. The case assembled, was taken to the Veterans of Foreign Wars(VFW) February meeting. The response from the gentleman there was fantastic and they will be happy to provide members to man the donation/giveaway table at different locations around town. Now it’s on me to get the case finished and start calling around to stores for permission to set up there.









After bringing the case back, I began to clear coat the case parts (after the recommendation from ArtMods) to prevent fingerprints and such. Keeping to the matte clear coat keeps it looking nice, but I’m really digging the slight sheen it created. We also took the opportunity to cut holes and install grommets for cable management.





Once the clear coat was dry, I began to install components. First up we mounted the spare 60GB(I know I know… I’m crying a bit inside too). After which, we cut the cable management hole so we could use 90 degree connectors and hide the cables to the other side of the motherboard tray. We also painted the stripes on the side panel that will showcase the SSD window(which will have the stars).








After the SSD was in place and wired up, we turned our attention to the Tt Water 3.0 AIO water cooling. After receiving the longer radiator screws from ModMyMods, I attached the front fans through the bracket to the radiator on the other side. Installing the Water 3.0 system and each part afterward, I focused on doing the cable management for each piece. The RGB control box for the five Tt Riing Plus 12 fans sits in the drive cage on the bottom, allowing for good cable management out of sight. Additional length of the front fan cables was tucked in beside the fans to sit behind the front panel. The other fan cables were tucked in the crevices around the motherboard tray to hide them from view. This also maximizes the amount of space needed for all the power cables. We also took time to install EVGA’s 1000W Supernova G2 PSU, no cables were attached until we tested the lights later on. I am excited to see the finished tan digital camo plate that will cover the side of the PSU. There was even hints toward LED illumination of the logo.








Once the cooling and PSU were in place, I went ahead and installed the motherboard and begun routing and hooking up cables. The black sleeved motherboard front I/O connectors look sharp coming off Gigabyte’s “G Connector” and through the grommet. There will be less slack when zip tied together and connected to the switch in front. Also, we fed the SATA cable through and plugged it in as well. Then we mock installed the cooling block in place to get a feel for the path of the tubes. To finish it off we installed the G.Skill Aegis 8GB RAM donated by Overclockers.com. Now we just need to get our hands on some RAM heatspreaders so we can color match them to the build.






Once we had everything in place, we just couldn’t resist and tested the RGB fans and white LED strip. We will also have another LED strip up top, but I’m waiting until I receive the PSU plaque from ArtMods and figure out how that will work.








As for the peripherals that Thermaltake sent us, we painted them with the same green to match the build. I picked up some tan acrylic paint to do some tiny accent highlights.






Well, that’s all I have for now. I wish I had more, but have been busy on the non-computer side of DDCM. For those who only care about the computer, you can look away for the rest of the post.

First, we refurbished an old coffee table to be used as a sturdy lego table, no wobbly plastic junk for my monkey of a daughter to climb on.






Also, we are in the progress of building a built in headboard unit for our bed. We refurbished some old white wood drawers that were pulled out of a dentist’s office. Then painted 2x12s a semi dark brown for the structure, and some 1x12 shelving boards cut to length. Next steps is to bolt the structure to the cabinets and install the lighting(Christmas LED string lights through pegboard and covered with a black lace material)









Well if you made it to this point in the post, thanks for sticking with it. I hope you enjoyed the progress update and I would love to hear your thoughts. I’m sure there’s flaws, so don’t hesitate to point them out as that’s how I learn and grow as a builder.

Thank you all!

Modders Unite!

 

Update 03/31/17



Good morning DDCM fans!

In the spirit of new traditions, I give a couple pictures of the current build status. First we have the front panel complete…... for the exception of one of the temp gauges I need to resolder together. Second we have the view from the side and a close up of the motherboard area that shows through the shroud. We are getting there people! PMT will soon be out in public raising donations for the VFW’s Color Guard fund. If you’re semi local to the East TN area and would like to enter the giveaway just let me know I can give you more details.





But onto our progress updates!

First we took some time to enjoy the good weather in the evening to sit outside on the porch and finish up the remaining sleeving for the GPU and CPU cables. The heat shrink and paracord worked nicely together to work around the moved resistors.






After we completed the sleeving, we ran the cables and got everything wire managed. We also took the time to get the cable combs in place to give them a nice clean look.






Once that was completed, we turned our attention to booting up the computer and installing Windows 10 which was also graciously donated by the veteran that we got the CPU from. After the OS was in place we could install all the drivers and get the fan controller software in place. This allowed us to get the fan colors configured the way we wanted.






Since the fans were now color configured, we might as well make the motherboard LEDs match.




A couple days later we got our package from ArtMods! Not sure if the sketch of the crazy looking guy is supposed to be him or me…. But either way it’s fitting. We can see here the vinyl is well secured inside the cardboard envelope, the PSU plate is all prepped and ready to be attached, and the nicely packaged LED kit for the PSU plate. He was nice enough to send me a kit instead of fully assembled so that I could sleeve it if I desired. However, he might have overestimated my soldering skills *laughs* but we’ll see what we can do. Look forward to continuing to work with him on future projects.






I tested the fit of the PSU plate, and that’s going to show nicely through the window.




Once I mocked up the front vinyl design, I was able to measure and cut the holes for the power button and gauges. Then it was another couple layers of paint and sealed with a layer of clear. Once it was dry and I could pop the gauges back in, we get to its current state. The black vinyl really ties it into the theme well.






After the front panel, I turned my attention to the other design features. First I put the star template on the SSD window and sprayed it with black and clear. Then slowly and carefully peeled off the template and placed it on the side panel to make sure my lines still matched. Hindsight we probably could’ve gone a bit bigger on the stars, but these should sit over the SSD almost perfectly. After that I began to work on the GPU backplate getting the templates in place. The letters giving me some trouble but hope to have that painted and installed tomorrow morning.






But that’s in for now folks, if I can carve out time this weekend I might have it finished and ready for display by Monday. Now to block out some time with our photographer to get the final pictures done!


Thank for hanging in there with me!

Modders Unite!

 

Update 03/31/17



Good morning DDCM fans!

In the spirit of new traditions, I give a couple pictures of the current build status. First we have the front panel complete…... for the exception of one of the temp gauges I need to resolder together. Second we have the view from the side and a close up of the motherboard area that shows through the shroud. We are getting there people! PMT will soon be out in public raising donations for the VFW’s Color Guard fund. If you’re semi local to the East TN area and would like to enter the giveaway just let me know I can give you more details.





But onto our progress updates!

First we took some time to enjoy the good weather in the evening to sit outside on the porch and finish up the remaining sleeving for the GPU and CPU cables. The heat shrink and paracord worked nicely together to work around the moved resistors.






After we completed the sleeving, we ran the cables and got everything wire managed. We also took the time to get the cable combs in place to give them a nice clean look.






Once that was completed, we turned our attention to booting up the computer and installing Windows 10 which was also graciously donated by the veteran that we got the CPU from. After the OS was in place we could install all the drivers and get the fan controller software in place. This allowed us to get the fan colors configured the way we wanted.






Since the fans were now color configured, we might as well make the motherboard LEDs match.




A couple days later we got our package from ArtMods! Not sure if the sketch of the crazy looking guy is supposed to be him or me…. But either way it’s fitting. We can see here the vinyl is well secured inside the cardboard envelope, the PSU plate is all prepped and ready to be attached, and the nicely packaged LED kit for the PSU plate. He was nice enough to send me a kit instead of fully assembled so that I could sleeve it if I desired. However, he might have overestimated my soldering skills *laughs* but we’ll see what we can do. Look forward to continuing to work with him on future projects.






I tested the fit of the PSU plate, and that’s going to show nicely through the window.




Once I mocked up the front vinyl design, I was able to measure and cut the holes for the power button and gauges. Then it was another couple layers of paint and sealed with a layer of clear. Once it was dry and I could pop the gauges back in, we get to its current state. The black vinyl really ties it into the theme well.






After the front panel, I turned my attention to the other design features. First I put the star template on the SSD window and sprayed it with black and clear. Then slowly and carefully peeled off the template and placed it on the side panel to make sure my lines still matched. Hindsight we probably could’ve gone a bit bigger on the stars, but these should sit over the SSD almost perfectly. After that I began to work on the GPU backplate getting the templates in place. The letters giving me some trouble but hope to have that painted and installed tomorrow morning.






But that’s in for now folks, if I can carve out time this weekend I might have it finished and ready for display by Monday. Now to block out some time with our photographer to get the final pictures done!


Thank for hanging in there with me!

Modders Unite!

 

Update 4/10/17



Good morning DDCM fans!

So I just wanted to drop a quick note to say that we have completed Project Military Tech! Join me in a little happy dance wheeee! I have included a teaser cell phone pic from the photo studio while all the final pictures were being taken this morning. Hopefully I can get them all edited and be able to post the final results by next Monday…….. only a 100 or so shots to go through

Also, please take a moment and help me thank these sponsors for their support on this project. As a business it's hard to make a living in our current economical state, so I can't express my gratitude enough when I see this kind of support.



Until next time, Happy Modding!

 

Update 4/20/17



Good morning DDCM fans!

This is the moment everyone has been waiting for! We are complete with Project Military Tech and have our final pictures to show. Thank you all for the support you have given and the many bits of advice during this process. But in order not to spoil the goodness of a final update, I give you the final look at PMT!










I hope you enjoyed the pictures.... here's a sneak peek of my next project.



Until next time, Happy Modding!